Does finasteride block dht or cause the body to produce less dht?

[JJacobs152]

The body does not produce DHT directly, really. Basically, testosterone in your bloodstream is binded to a substance that prevents it's breakdown. This allows testosterone to get to androgen receptors in a functional state. Once unbinded though (as it must be to bind to receptor sites and enzymes), substances can convert testosterone into other hormones. You're probably familiar with the fact that test converts to estrogen. It also converts to DHT though, once combined with a particular enzyme. Fin, however, is more competative in reacting with this enzyme. Thus, fin sort of uses up all of that substance by binding with it instead of test, allowing testosterone to remain as testosterone. It doesn't do anything to DHT itself.

So the answer to your question is that yes, those are different processes. Fin does the stop production one.

(A substance that "blocked" DHT would instead be more competative in binding with the receptor site. But as the site in question is the androgen receptor site, I'd imagine blocking that would be bad news bears even harder than fin is already sometimes bad news bears.)

Nicely said, and the enzyme which finasteride works on is 5alpha-reductase. Also, used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia.